[mostly] for my mother...

For those who are not familiar with the physical process of voting here in Israel, allow me lend a hand:

Unlike many countries that have mechanical, or even computerized, voting machines, Israel still uses paper ballots and a simple ballot box.  At the end of the elections, the ballots are counted by hand under the supervision of multiple representatives of the interested political parties, and the results are tallied the old fashioned way.

And because this is a country of immigrants where nearly everyone is highly literate... although sadly not in a common language... we have eliminated the need to mark a ballot or write in a name.  All the political parties are represented by one, two or sometimes three letter symbols printed on individual ballots that the parties themselves have chosen and registered with the National election authorities.

These letters often, but not always, spell a word or acronym that is supposed to serve as a positive mnemonic for that particular party.  For instance, the Labor party's symbol is the three letters Aleph- Mem-Taf which spells the Hebrew word Emet (truth), Kadima uses the two letters Chaf-Nun which spells the Hebrew word Ken(yes), and the Alei Yarok (Green Leaf) party uses Kuf-Nun (the first two letters of the word Cannabis) as their symbol.  A few parties with short names, such as Meretz and Shas are able to use their full name as their symbol.

In order to avoid confusion in the voting booth, almost all the parties use an image of their ballot as a prominent part of the advertising campaigns.  The idea being that if someone (like my parents) really wants to make sure they don't vote for the wrong party, they can take the campaign flyer for the correct party into the booth and compare the letter-symbols in the ad with the letter-symbols in the tray.

So far so good?

I haven't stumbled across a comprehensive list of parties and their symbols, but here are a good portion of the major parties/factions contending in tomorrow's election:

New Arab Party- עם
Balad - ד
Green- רק
Green Leaf- קן
Green-Meimad- ה
Hadash- ו (vav)
Ichud Leumi (National Union)- ט
Israel Is Our Home (Yisrael Beiteinu)- ל
Jewish Home- ב
Meretz-  מרצ
Kadima- כן
Labor-אמת
Likud- מחל
Pensioners (Gil)- זך
Ra'am- ק
Shas - שס
Tzomet- ץ
Yehadut HaTorah (UTJ)- ג

OK, so I hear some of you asking, what about the Arabs... why are they forced to vote using Hebrew letters?  I'm glad you asked, because they aren't.  In Arab communities, all of the ballots use the Arabic equivalent to the Hebrew letters, and in mixed communities (such as Haifa and Yaffo) there are both Hebrew and Arabic ballots in the booth from which the voter can select their preferred party.  Since English and Russian (the next most commonly spoken languages in the country) are not 'official' languages, we have to make due with either Hebrew or Arabic.

There will be almost 10,000 light blue Ballot boxes spread across the country tomorrow, including 194 that are taken to hospitals (so bed-ridden patients can vote) and 56 that will be taken to prisons (yes, you read that correctly). 

Active duty military personnel and border patrol soldiers who will be away from home on election day already cast their ballots yesterday at military bases across the country, as did consular/embassy staff stationed abroad.

Incidentally, with the exception of consular/embassy staff stationed abroad and Israeli citizens stationed on Israeli flagged ships, Israel does not allow absentee ballots.  If you want to participate in the country's elections, you need to be here on Israeli soil.  Personally I like this idea since it means that, with the exception of the few who fly in especially for the elections, all of the people voting will be around to reap the consequences of their decisions.

This will by my parent's first national election as Israeli citizens.  They've already voted in Jerusalem's municipal elections a few months ago, so the process won't be entirely foreign to them.  During the municipal elections my parents went to hear a few speeches, read the basic positions of the major parties/candidates, and then asked me to show them the correct letters for that party/candidate so they could vote.  And yes, I showed them the correct letters (and will do so again this time around)

But still, if you don't read Hebrew, or are not completely comfortable with it, walking into the voting booth can be a little daunting. 

Basically, you stand in line at your designated polling place, walk in and show them your ID card and are given an envelope with your info printed on the outside.  When it is your turn, they direct you to a little cubicle (usually a table with a three sided cardboard screen set up to shield you from prying eyes) and there on the table top is a tray that looks like this:

 
    [image is (c) Israelity.com] 

Your job is to take one (and onlyone) paper ballot and place it into your envelope.  Then you go back out to the table where they registered you on the way in and you drop your sealed envelope into the pretty blue ballot box. 

That's it. That is your vote.

If only the decision-making was as easy as the physical act of voting.